Page 109 of Axe-identally Married
I took a deep breath, telling myself I could handle whatever she was feeling. Even if it meant she didn’t feel the way I did.
“I got jealous,” she said softly, her voice muffled by my vest. “Of that girl at the bar.”
The admission was like a physical blow.Jealous?
“Of Aspen?” I asked? Frowning, I carefully replayed the interaction. It had been friendly, not flirty.
“Yes. She’s beautiful. And the way she was looking at you and touching you made me so mad.” Her face was red, and she was clenching the fabric of my shirt and vest at my sides. “She was totally flirting with you. Lusting after my husband.”
I smiled. When she called me her husband in that possessive way, all my primal instincts were unleashed. I stood taller and pulled her closer, palming her ass. “Now you know how I feel every day.”
“No,” she scoffed. “It’s more than that. Seeing her speak to you and the way you looked together made me feel insecureand silly.” She stepped back, putting distance between us and crossing her arms.
Fuck. This was not good.
“We’re married, sure, but we were drunk and making stupid decisions. Now you’re stuck with me. I was feeling so good about us, but then I saw her and realized that she’s the kind of woman you should be with, and then I started to feel awful.”
My stomach lurched. “Stuck with you? You believe that?”
She was pacing now. All I wanted was to kiss her to shut her up and make her never feel this way again, but she was on a roll. “I want to be above petty jealousy. I want to be above being hurt when pretty girls flirt with you. But I was so mad. And then I felt like an overdressed idiot at a bar on a cold Saturday night.”
“You look gorgeous,” I insisted, stepping toward her. “And let me be very clear. I am not stuck with you. Marrying you was the best decision I’ve ever made.”
She stopped and dropped her arms to her sides. “Cole,” she said, her voice so fragile and sad.
Pain lanced my chest. Shit, I had to fix this.
“Look at my phone,” I said, pulling the device from my pocket. Once I’d unlocked it, I handed it over. “Go to my photos.”
She picked it up, eyeing me skeptically.
“Now click on the album titledWifey.”
Head lowered, she tapped the screen a few times, and then her eyes widened. Slowly, she scrolled through the photos. Even more slowly, recognition dawned on her face.
“You took all these photos of me?”
“Yeah.” I ran my hand through my hair. “I realize it’s creepy. We can unpack that later. But sometimes I look at you, and you’re just so damn beautiful. I want to remember the way you looked in that moment forever, so I take a picture.”
She kept scrolling, past photos of her reading on her Kindle, throwing rocks, and doing yoga. Photos of the two of us hiking and one of her posing in front of the Zamboni at the rink.
“Then I put the photos into this album, and any time I feel like a complete loser or a waste of space, I look through them and remember that you married me. Even if you never love me like I love you, and even if this ends in a few months, I’ll always look back at these photos and know that though it might have only been a blip in time, there was a point in my life where I did something right.”
“Cole.” She looked up, her eyes misting. “There are so many.”
I shrugged. “I may fail at everything else. But I am going to work hard every day to be the best damn husband I can be for as long as you’ll have me. I want you fiercely. And I want a future with you. But I have to earn it. And I will if you give me a chance.”
She jumped into my arms and kissed me hard. Heart thumping wildly, I pushed her up against the wall and kissed her back with just as much passion.
This. This is what I’ve always needed.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Willa
He loves me.
The thoughts bounced around my brain as we kissed, my body wrapped around his, supported by his strength and overtaken by the sheer power of his lips.
